Careless whether Larry returned to consciousness or not he placed one arm about her and bent his face to hers. "I had a note," she explained, "signed with your initials telling me that all was well and asking me to meet you at this train as it was necessary that you should go to London immediately." "Who brought the note?" "Some boy. Probably a messenger picked up in the street. Of course I went to the station at once, but could see no sign of you, nor of anyone that I knew till the train was about to start. That was just a little before you came. Then suddenly Larry Hughes was beside me. I was startled, of course, but the audacity of the thing somehow prevented any sense of alarm for the instant. "'Don't be alarmed,' he said. 'You are looking for Labar?' "'What are you doing here?' I cried. 'Where is Mr. Labar?' I was so worried about you that I was unable to think clearly. "'I am on parole till the train starts,' he declared. 'You will be pleased to learn that I have surrendered, that I am a prisoner.'" Labar interrupted her story. "My dear child. Don't tell me that you were ingenuous enough to swallow that--to believe that I would let a prisoner--especially Larry--move about on his own?" "It does sound silly. I was off my balance I suppose. I did not altogether believe it or disbelieve it. It sounded a little strange, but then so many strange things have happened to me. I could not account for his presence in Rye unless he had surrendered. He declared that you were treating him as a gentleman, and that you had gone to send a telegram and would be back in a minute. Malone was already in the train. "We walked along the train to find the compartment in which Malone was supposed to be. All at once he gave me a quick push and thrust me into the train. Instantly he followed, pinning me down to the seat with some kind of jiu-jitsu hold, and with one hand over my mouth, but seating himself so that it would be difficult for anyone passing along the platform to notice what he was doing. Then you came." In the other corner of the carriage Larry Hughes opened his eyes. "A fool for luck, Labar," he said sardonically. "Things have come your way with a vengeance." CHAPTER XXX Penelope impulsively gripped more tightly on Labar's arm, but the detective could afford to take his antagonist's sneer with a certain amount of equanimity. "I told you that you couldn't go on bucking against the machine for ever, Larry," he said. "And talking of fools, what made you mad enough to go to Rye?"